Ice shaver



Dec. 10, 1968 s. T. ECHOLS, JR 3,415,457

ICE SHAVER Filed April 20, 1966 Z a l United States Patent 3,415,457 ICE SHAVER Samuel T. Echols, Jr., Bismarck, Mo. 63624 Filed Apr. 20, 1966, Ser. No. 545,221 2 Claims. (Cl. 241-92) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The portable ice shaver has a base member on which is mounted a body member and an electric motor. The body member includes a housing with outwardly flaring side walls opening downwardly through the base member and two opposed side openings. The shaft of the motor extends through one opening and a shaving element driven by the shaft is mounted in the other. Also, connected to the other opening is an arcuate hopper. Adjacent the one opening and mounted on the shaft is a fan repelling element. A U-shaped rigidizing plate member encloses the top of the housing and is rigidly secured to the sides thereof and detachably secured to the motor and bridges the space therebetween.

This invention relates to a high capacity, nonclogging, lightweight, portable ice shaver to convert ice into finely comminuted ice particles suitable for salt as snow cones when treated with suitable flavored syrups. Heretofore, small ice shavers such as is described in United States Patent No. 1,797,643, were of limited capacity and the finely divided ice particles frequently clogged the discharge tube requiring a concessionaire to employ large, expensive and complex ice shavers such as described by United States Patent No. 2,539,734 to dispense a large number of snow cones in short periods of time.

An object of this invention is to provide a lightweight, portable motor actuated high capacity ice shaver.

Another object of this invention is to provide a lightwight, portable noncloggin g ice shaver.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a small, rigid, lightweight, portable ice shaver.

Still other and further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon a full understanding of the invention as hereinafter described and shown in the drawings and defined in the appending claims.

Referring to the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation view of one embodiment of this invention.

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken substantially along line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 as viewed in the direction indicated by the arrows.

FIGURE 3 is a partial sectional view taken substantially along line 33 of FIGURE 2 as viewed in the direction indicated by the arrows.

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken substantially along line 44 of FIGURE 5 as viewed in the direction indicated by the arrows.

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view of FIGURE 4 taken substantially along line 55 of FIGURE 4 as viewed in the direction indicated by the arrows.

Simiiar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Having reference now to the drawings in detail there is generally indicated by the character the base of the ice shaver whose lower extremities are shaped to set on any suitable open top container 11 such as a conventional display case for popcorn or snow cones, or both. Base 10 is provided with an indented ring portion 12 having an opening 13 therethrough and boss 14. Boss 14 constitutes a support for the base 15 of electric motor 16 which is held to the base 10 by bolts or any other suitable fastening device.

"ice

Seated in the ring portion 12 is the base 17 of an arcuate tubular housing 18, there being a delivery or discharge tube integral with tubular housing 18 having slightly tapered interior side walls 32 that extend. downwardly and outwardly to base 17. The upper ends of tubular housing 18 comprises end portion 19. The end portion 19 constitutes the housing for the shaving and expelling elements. The shaving element consists of disc 20 which is provided with slots 21 in opposed portions thereof. Extending through each slot 21 is a cutting blade 22 adjustably fastened to the disc 20 by any suitable means. The cutting blades 22 are at acute angles to the face of the disc 20 and may be adjusted so as to vary the fineness of the ice particles. Disc 20 is secured to the end of the shaft 23 of electric motor 16 and is so mounted that disc 20 fits snugly but freely rotates therein. To shaft 23 within housing 18 is also secured an expelling element in the form of a fan wheel 24 spaced from the disc 20, and this fan wheel 24 works across the inner side of opening 25 of housing 18 through which the shaft 23 extends to electric motor 16.

A rigidizing shield 33 is positioned between and attached to electric motor 16 and end portion 19 by any suitable fastening means such as the screws 34 used to attach the rigidizing shield 33 to end portion 19 and bolts 35 used to attach the rigidizing shield 33 to electric motor 16.

An car 26 extends from tubular housing 18 and pivotally connects with an arm 27 carrying a follower. The follower 28 has a head 29 adapted to swing downwardly into the upper arcuate tubular portion of tubular housing 18 for the purpose of forcing the contents of the body longitudinally against the disc 20. A handle 30 extends from the follower 28. A stop lug 31 extends from arm 27 and is adapted to engage the rigidizing shield member 33 when the follower 28 is in the extreme open position.

In the operation of this apparatus, the ice to be shaved is placed in the upper portion of the tubular housing 18 and the follower is then swung downwardly so that the follower head 29 will press against the ice and force it against disc 20. Disc 20 is rotated at a high speed by means of electric motor 16 and blades 22 shave the ice into finely divided particles. These pass through slots 21 in the disc 20, thence, into the base 17 of the tubular housing 18. The fan wheel 24 prevents any of the ice particles from escaping through opening 25 and acts as a means for delivering air to help eject the ice particles downwardly.

Slightly tapered interior side walls 32 extending downwardly and outwardly along the delivery or discharge tube prevents the finely divided ice particles from clogging the ice shaver during operation. Heretofore, vertical interior side walls tended to clog the machine during high speed sustained operation. The taper does need to be great and in most instances a taper of less than about 5 degrees from vertical is sufficient.

The nonclogging feature of the device in this invention is also aided by the rigidizing shield member 33 which rigidizes the structure between electric motor 16 and tubular housing 18 permitting the disc 20 to fit more snugly in the upper end portion 19 of tubular housing 18. This snug fit in turn tends to prevent the finely divided ice particles which travel at high speed from. striking the side walls 32 at large angles and sticking.

From the foregoing, it will now be seen that there is herein provided an ice shaver, which accomplishes all of the objects of this invention, and others, including many advantages of great practical utility and commercial importance.

As many embodiments may be made of this inventive concept, and as many modifications may be made in the embodiments hereinbefore shown and described, it is to be understood that all matter herein is to be interpreted merely as illustrative and not in any limiting sense.

Having described the invention, what I claim is:

1. In an ice shaver having a base and an arcuate body member detachably mounted on one end thereof and an electric motor detachably mounted on the other end, that portion of the body member nearest the base constituting a housing, the bottom of said housing mounted in an opening through the base, a shaving element mounted within the .body adjacent to the housing and an expelling element mounted within the housing rotatably connected with said motor, means for maintaining uninterrupted flow of the finely divided ice particles from the ice shaver, said means comprising a housing having tapered interior side walls extending downwardly and outwardly and a rigidizing member spaced above said base detachably mounted to said body member and electric motor, said rigidizing member comprising an inverted U-shaped plate positioned over and enclosing the upper portion of the housing and bridging the space between the housing and said motor and having the sides thereof rigidly secured to the sides of the housing whereby the housing and motor operate as a single unitary device.

2. In an ice shaver having a base and a body member detachably mounted on one end thereof and an electric motor detachably mounted on the other end, one portion of the body member having supporting engagement with the base constituting a housing, having front and rear walls, the bottom of said housing being mounted over an opening through the base, another portion of the body member constituting a hollow arcuate member, said housing having a first opening in said front wall in communication with said arcuate member, and a second opening in the rear wall through which the shaft of the motor extends, a shaving element mounted on one end of said shaft snugly received Within the first opening of the housing and a fan wheel expelling element mounted within the housing adjacent said second opening and rotatably connected with said motor shaft, means for maintaining uninterrupted flow of the finely divided ice particles from the ice shaver, said means including tapering the interior rear and side walls of said housing downwardly and outwardly from the region of the upper edge of the fan blades, and spacing the lower rear end edge of said fan blades farther from the rear Wall than the upper rear edge thereof whereby the ice particles will have less tendency to stick to the wall of the housing, a rigidizing member spaced above said base detachably mounted to said body member and said electric motor, said rigidizing member comprising an inverted U-shaped plate positioned over and enclosing the upper portion of the housing and bridging the space between the housing and said motor and having the sides thereof rigidly secured to the sides of the housing whereby the housing and motor operate as a single unitary device.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,797,643 3/1931 Echols -i 241--92 2,100,200 11/1937 Mosley 24156 2,539,734 1/1951 Echols et a1. 241 1,426,742 8/1922 Jerome 241--92 2,684,207 7/1954 OBrien 241-92 2,850,246 9/1958 Rees et a1. 241-278 FOREIGN PATENTS 526,085 10/1921 France. 158,089 8/ 1954 Australia.

GERALD A. DOST, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R.

74-608; 24l-l0l, 188, 278; 248-15 

